Back to the Bird! The 10:30 tram put us all back on top, but this time, the cloud was already over us. It looked like another day at Inspo, but there was time to wait and see. Soon the cloud cleared, and the early prep that Bill, Todd and I had done put in pole position for first launches.
     Only problem was the wind was fickle - first up the front (where we set up - you can launch in almost every direction), then over the back. I inflated my glider a half dozen times, only to have no pressure when it got overhead. During one of the over-the-back cycles, I inflated sideways, and tuned the glider towards the backside and took it!
     The air on the backside was turb, but it had been heating all morning, and soon I found a wild and winding one and took it to base at 17K. I was the first one to climb out, and I didn't want to wait around, so I set out over the back towards Park City. The cloud had grown over the 'bird to massive proportions, and I was going up the whole time as I headed east. I finally reached the edge of the cloud just as I neared the legal altitude limit. Turning NE, I saw Zack to the west deep in the shade.
     I headed for Luis Peak and struck gold. Back at base and watching the dark virga to my left, I headed over Coalville into the mountains towards Wyoming. The Uintas range was completely OD'd, with sheets of rain going from 18K to the ground, and I didn't want to get anywhere near that! Climbing again, I saw Todd come in low on Porcupine, but spun a few good circles in lift, then came to join me. He had launched a half hour after I had, climbed to 18,000 ft and began to hunt me down.
     We climbed together for a few thousand, then headed off towards Evanston up the ridge. Everything was getting dark, now and we felt a bit small in a big sky, so we headed for the sun. Only problem was, it was all gone! A few more straggling thermals and we went on final to land on Hwy 16 beyond Evanston - 66.8 miles!
     Looking back, it is remarkable to me to fly so close to such dramatic weather. Normally, we would not even get close to this kind of thing, but the air was amazingly nice. I suppose this is kind of dangerous in the sense that we become less concerned the more we fly and get away with it. All day I kept looking at the clouds, the virga, the lakes, looking for signs of turbulence, gust fronts, but there was never a sign of high winds ever. Just lots of moisture and no real consequence - so it seems. This is what concerns me, today kept getting darker and darker, until Todd and I basically left lift because we thought it was going to get nasty. As soon as we landed, the sky opened up and the threat seemed to dissipate. Still, we were confident that we did the right thing, we had a great flight and we landed safely.
     Chase was already in Evanston, so within minutes, they were picking us up. Dale flew over us, and we chased him down a long road to complete his 73 mile flight. As we drove back to SLC, we remarked that the Labor Day traffic was a result of God's people returning from God's good earth(camping vacation) to God's city to go back to work at God's company tomorrow morning! In case you didn't know, Salt Lake City is the center of the universe for Mormons (MoMo's as they are affectionately regarded by locals). Even the streets are numbered from the church at the center - ground zero. Wow.
 

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